Posts Tagged With: Neighborhood

Since the inception of the personal automobile, the way that communities are designed has changed considerably, so much so that many neighborhoods are arranged so that people only interact with each other as they pass in their cars. New Urbanism is a movement to undo this by designing walkable places where people and communities flourish; using the tools of cohousing, traditional neighborhood development, pocket neighborhoods and many others designers seek to make new places that are centered around people, not cars. By addressing more than just the built environment, Cohousing takes it a step further and intentionally seeks to rebuild the social fabric one neighborhood at a time.

Speaker: Peter Lazar has lived in the cohousing community “Shadowlake Village” in Blacksburg for many years and is an advocate for the movement on the national level with the Cohousing Association (http://www.cohousing.org). He is currently working on bringing the new 26 home “Emerson Commons” cohousing neighborhood in Crozet to life. Join us this month as Peter highlights the design, benefits, challenges and experiences of living and building neighborhoods centered around people.

Crozet, Virginia is becoming a vibrant, bustling, livable and walkable center. Within walking distance of all the amenities that this growing town has to offer in the heart of an existing neighborhood is the possibility of yet another community that shifts the focus away from the personal automobile to personal interaction. Click here to see the full design.

If you want to live here, invest in the concept, or help make it a reality please contact us.

Join us downtown on Tuesday, August 9th downtown Charlottesville for the monthly seminar on green building.

Technically, the Strategic Investment Area (or SIA) is the area just south of the downtown mall that the city has chosen as a targeted area for revitalization and reinvestment. This vision goes beyond economic stimulus by aspiring to create a vibrant, healthy place with more opportunity for current residents as well as new.

Matthew Slaats and the Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative (The Bridge PAI) are already hard at work building relationships and understanding through art; embracing the past, creating in the present, and planting seeds for the future. They celebrate all the things that make our neighborhoods unique by championing the vibrancy, skills and knowledge that resides in us all; through cookouts, talent shows, exhibitions, workshops, and community projects that bring us together and help define the future of our city.

He will inform us of the current initiatives, challenges, inspiring stories, and visions for the future of a city created by all of the people who call it home.

The luncheon will be held at City Space, 100 5th St. NE, on the Downtown Mall, Charlottesville, VA. Doors open at 11:45 and the Seminar begins at 12:00. Register Here

Crozet, Virginia is becoming a vibrant, bustling, livable and walkable center. Within walking distance of all the amenities that this growing town has to offer in the heart of an existing neighborhood is the possibility of a community that shifts the focus away from the personal automobile to personal interaction. Click here to see the full design.

If you want to live here, invest in the concept, or help make it a reality please contact us.

We are trying to understand how to best shape Ecovillage Charlottesville with the community (you) in mind. It would help us out so much if you could fill out our survey about what you would like to see in the community. Thank you so much.

The latest version of the Ecovillage Charlottesville site plan is finally here! The project has picked up a ton of traction lately, so keep checking www.facebook.com/EcovillageCharlottesville for status updates.

A community of tiny houses! This is a really neat idea if they can keep architectural unity and keep it well maintaned through the years. It will be really interested to see how they make this project happen as it is out of the realm of what city planners and zoning officials have ever seen.

Affordable housing, healthy environments, and energy efficiency don’t usually go together. In Central Virginia, affordability is often the least attainable goal and is becoming an increasingly big problem for the areas less-affluent residents.

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville is doing an impressive amount in this area to build dwellings that provide all three. Their mission goes far beyond just getting hard-working people into homes; revitalizing entire existing neighborhoods with a focus on walkability, sustainability, community and ownership. They are paving the way with a new standard for peri-urban neighborhood revitalization.

Habitat for Humanity around the country has always been a leader in affordability and it is excellent to see the focus on sustainable, more resilient communities.

Located just outside the city limits of Charlottesville lies a six acre parcel of land next to the aging Stonehenge Neighborhood; its gentle south-facing slope and existing structures make it the perfect place for something quite a bit different from a typical subdivision: The Greater Stonehenge Ecovillage. Please check out the newest plan, and tell us what you think!See the details here on The Housing Lab or The Greater Stonehenge Website